Hi, and thanks for visiting my blog about the GlobeBusters 2017 Ace to Ace, London to Beijing Expedition.
Here are some shorcuts to take you to specific places on the blog:
Route outline, here you can see the planned route.
Day 1, leaving the Ace Cafe, London.
The Gates of Hell, also known as the Darvaza gas crater which is in the Turkmenistan desert.
Hair cut, as a result of waiting in the heat at the Tajikistan border!
Wakhan Valley, what adventure riding is all about.
Mount Everest, a real highlight to the trip.
Ace Cafe Beijing, fantastic welcoming party.
Tuesday 31 October 2017
Thursday 5 October 2017
USA
Well due to me being very busy sorting out the route for my USA part of the trip and catching up on much needed rest, the US blog didn't happen, although I may post some more stuff one day about that side of it.
I am back home now in England and spent 166 days on the road covering 22,000 miles doing my lap of the Northern Hemisphere.
Here are some images from my tracker showing my journey...
I am back home now in England and spent 166 days on the road covering 22,000 miles doing my lap of the Northern Hemisphere.
Here are some images from my tracker showing my journey...
London to Tokyo Route
USA Route
Completed Northern Hemisphere Route
Thursday 10 August 2017
Day 111
With no bikes to ride, today was a day off and so I joined a
couple of the group members on a trip using the Metro system (underground
trains) to the other side of the City to see an old temple and a bit of
souvenir shopping, and yes you guessed it, I got stickers for the bike!
There was also the last group meal of the trip in the
evening where we went out to a restaurant for some Japanese beef. Unfortunately
we had to sit in three separate areas so didn’t feel quite so much as a group
meal as we had in the past.
Upon getting back to the hotel, it was time to say our
goodbyes as we were all leaving at different times the next day, but a few of
us decided to play one final dice game, winner takes all competition with just
one game but scoring up to twice the usual amount. Unfortunately I didn’t win
but it was a great game none the less and a great ending to the GlobeBusters
expedition.
Of course, a few of us will meet again at the Ace Café in
Orlando if all goes according to plan!
Wednesday 9 August 2017
Day 110
The plan for the final days ride in Japan was planned that we went
our own way to start with and then all meet up between 1-2 pm to ride a s a
group to Triumph Tokyo where they will host a welcome event for us.
Kevin did ask me to try and be on time today, I just laughed
and said sure thing. Although, as I had decided to ride on my own this morning,
it was no sure thing at all, but I would try my best!
The mornings ride was a in the mountains again, but this time the roads were wider and more open space around them. Quite a few of them were also toll roads which was a little annoying having to keep stopping and paying for each road you turned onto. I would much rather pay one larger toll fee and ride where I like. Of course, these roads were also much busier meaning more cars, more yellow lines, thus more controversial over takes, but I was getting used to this now and didn’t find it anywhere as frustrating as the first couple of days riding in Japan. These roads were also very popular with local motorcyclists on a variety of bikes but mostly big sports bikes.
I didn’t stop as much as I thought I might for photos, but
there was one place that really did grab my attention and this was an old
abandoned building on one of the mountain passes that was roped off, which I
just stepped over to take a closer look with my camera in hand.
It had a funny green hat like roof and on the side of it said, ‘Global Environment and Energy Museum’. It was a quirky building that now had several smashed windows, graffiti and all over grown foliage around it which due to my fear of spiders, stopped me exploring it as much as I would have liked to.
It had a funny green hat like roof and on the side of it said, ‘Global Environment and Energy Museum’. It was a quirky building that now had several smashed windows, graffiti and all over grown foliage around it which due to my fear of spiders, stopped me exploring it as much as I would have liked to.
Despite getting a little off route due to navigational
issues I arrived at the meeting point just before 1:30pm so that turned out to
be just fine.
Tuesday 8 August 2017
Day 109
It is the penultimate riding day of stage 2 of my trip, and the final part of the GlobeBusters journey and
the remnants of the tornado that we have been dodging for the last few days, is
just some light rain to start our day off.
Hiro had one of his friends come along to ride with us today
and he was riding a Harley Davidson Street Glide. Due to the light rain, we
started the day with our waterproofs on, and set off as a group of 7 riding out
of town with Hiro leading.
Once clear of the town we headed to a wooded area and
followed an old broken up road going up. Now with the wet weather and the fact
that we were all on roads tyres it proved to be a bit of a challenge and one
group member got caught out by some large slippery stones which led to them
laying down to rest for a bit. Another few hundred yards and there was another
rider down so it was decided that we should turn around as it was getting
steeper all the time. But what really amazed us was that Hiro's friend on the Harley just trundled along behind us, even up that slippery forest track, totally awsome!
Once the rain had stopped we removed the waterproofs and
roads towards Mount Fuji. Initially we got a good clear view of Japan’s highest
mountain. But then within 5-10 minutes, and before we had a chance to stop for
a view without buildings and powerlines in the way, the clouds had come in
thick and fast to the point we could hardly see it at all. I was a little annoyed
with myself for not stopping to take some photos when I first saw it, but this
can be the downside to riding as a group. We went to a hotel up a hill where we
then had coffee and cake waiting for the clouds to disperse which they did
slightly move so we could just about make out the shape of the top of the
mountain and taking a quick photo before riding on. As we rode around the coast
line we got to see it again from the other side of the water but it still was
nowhere near as clear as it had been earlier on.
I let the others ride on whilst I waited to see if the view
of Mt. Fuji would become any clearer which it did but only a little. I just
felt like I needed to ride alone so that I could stop at other viewpoints or
make U-turns when I thought the light had improved in order to get my best
chance of seeing this iconic mountain in my own time.
And the time ticked by faster than I had anticipated until it soon became apparent that I was not going
to make the 6pm meeting. I did try sending a message to Kevin to say I was OK
and just running late but later learnt that this did not get through. I pressed
on up the coast heading towards the hotel, but even as the light of the day started
to fade away, photo opportunities kept arising and as much as I tried, I just
couldn’t let them all go by without a quick snap, after all, I doubt I will be
back here in again so I convinced myself to seize the moment.
The concentration
on time then shifted from the meeting to the start of dinner at 7pm and
although I was getting very close now, when it came to finding the hotel I just
rode up and down until eventually I saw a couple of the group who had decided
to come away from the meal and point me in the right direction as they too had
found it difficult to find. This was much appreciated, and just showed the bond
that we had achieved since starting on this journey back in April. So I had
missed the meeting altogether and the start of the meal, but I had
also forgotten it was one of the group members birthday, which meant I also missed that part
too which was a shame and made me feel a bit uneasy. So not the best end to the day but you can’t end every day on cloud 9.
Doh, mustn’t mention clouds, they ruined my photos of Mt. Fuji earlier and I don’t want reminding of that!
Doh, mustn’t mention clouds, they ruined my photos of Mt. Fuji earlier and I don’t want reminding of that!
Monday 7 August 2017
Day 108
This morning a few of us were going to see the local
attraction, Matsumoto Castle, the oldest of its kind dating back to 1595. It is
again one of Japan’s premier historic castles, along with Himeji Castle that I
also visited recently, but the one distinct difference from Himeji, is that
this is painted black in colour. Time didn’t allow us to enter the castle but
we did walk all around the outside while Hiro gave us some information on this
and other associated Japanese history.
Hiro then led us out of town and into the mountains. As
usual I was looking for photographic locations and was hoping that as we
climbed higher we would get some great views, but this was not easy for two
reasons; the side of the mountain was covered in trees obstructing our views
and on the odd occasion you could get a glimpse through the trees it was
evident that the cloud base was very low, meaning any views that may have been
there were now absorbed into this greyish white layer.
However, we did eventually get a clearer view the other side of the mountain, or was it another mountain all together, I wasn’t sure as the tight twisty road took us up and down so much I lost any such sense of location, but then some would say I didn’t have a lot to start with!
However, we did eventually get a clearer view the other side of the mountain, or was it another mountain all together, I wasn’t sure as the tight twisty road took us up and down so much I lost any such sense of location, but then some would say I didn’t have a lot to start with!
Down came the rain forcing us to pull over and put on the
waterproofs. This pretty much ended the photos stops even though the rain dried
up later on, either the scenery was not good enough, the light was not right or
I didn’t feel like stopping, but tomorrow is another day that may bring more
opportunities.
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